The second-oldest Megami Magazine volume that I own is volume 18, published exactly 10 years ago on November 1, 2001. As with the oldest Megami Magazine I own, I bought this one simply for the cover, which features my two favourite characters from Denshin Mamotte Shugogetten: Shao and Kiryuu. I always like looking back on series that I have enjoyed and going through a Megami Magazine from 10 years ago is a good way of doing that. Note that I’ve censored any nudity, but ecchi (NSFW) images are still hidden in the links.

The first poster is of some of the girls from Memories Off 2nd. I never actually watched this anime, but I do remember it being popular enough to spawn several titles. As for the quality of the poster image, I think that it would be considered good even by today’s standards.

On the reverse is an original character design by Keiji Gotoh, who also designed the characters for Nadesico and Those Who Hunt Elves. Keiji has also helped bring us anime such as D.N.Angel, Kiddy Grade, and more recently, Mawaru Penguindrum.

Another successful series around this time was You’re Under Arrest. This poster features Miyuki and Natsumi sitting against a beautiful mountain backdrop.

Even back in 2001, there were anime like Tenshi no Shippo, which really had no plot and focused on a lot of cute girls.

One of the more comedic series of the era was Mahoromatic, produced by Gainax and Shaft. This poster of Mahoro is beautiful with the fall leaves and her matching outfit.

I can’t say that I liked the ONE anime very much. The animation was mediocre for an OVA and the story was dull.

Galaxy Angel has some nice character designs, but I would’ve preferred a space-themed poster of Ranpha here.

This is the same image that was used on the front cover. Apparently Mamotte Shugogetten wasn’t as well-received in the west as in Japan, but I guess it’s understandable considering the mangaka Minene Sakurano stopped writing without ending the story. I still like the series though.

Kokoro Library was my first taste of a true slice-of-life (plotless and humourless) anime. If it weren’t for Kokoro’s super huge eyes and cute smile, I wouldn’t have made it as far as I did. Keep in mind that at this time anime was pushing the boundaries of super-sized eyes and fans were eating it up. Only a few months after this magazine was published, the original Kanon (2002) anime came out and it has the largest eyes I’ve ever seen.

Around this time was when Gamers’ very own anime, Di Gi Charat, was at the height of its popularity. When I went to Akiba last year, Gamers still had a huge Di Gi Charat billboard on their building. I still find the animation style really cute after all these years.

Vandread was pretty popular around this time, but looking back on it, the animation style wasn’t very impressive.

Angelic Layer, on the other hand, had some amazing visuals with all of the fight scenes. I was really impressed with the anime until I realized they had been playing the same episode over and over again with a different character each time. Endless Eight has nothing on this anime.

I think these are original creations for Megami Magazine. The blue-haired girl looks the most well-drawn, but they all have oddly shaped faces.

From this point on, all of the posters are of characters from adult anime, games, or manga. While Megami Magazine has completely removed this section in its present form, keep in mind that this was 10 years ago and Japan was much less conservative back then.

This lovely lady is Aine from the series Front Innocent (Another Lady Innocent in English). She is one of Satoshi Urushihara’s creations, an artist known for his unique female character designs. For some unknown reason, Front Innocent never got its second and final episode.

I thought this illustration was extremely detailed and simply looks amazing. The angel’s name is Linaria Phalaenopsis and she’s from the Eve License Organization series by Hiro Suzuhira.

You’re probably thinking that this poster accidently got mixed in the wrong section, but apparently it’s in the right place. The name of the game is Tentama -1st Sunny Side- and it’s a loli dating sim for the Dreamcast. Not surprisingly, it was developed and published by a company called KID corporation.

One upside to adult material is that it pushes companies to create high quality character designs and poses, like this one.

This is a feature illustration by artist Yoko Tanaka. Personally, I find it rather amteur looking with the legs in the wrong positions and a very simple face.

Not exactly my style, but I can’t find much fault in this image.

Darling is one of those series that really draws attention, even from people who aren’t interested in 18+ anime. The character designs and artwork for it are superb, and the series itself actually ranks decently for a title from this genre.

Magami Magazine had started its famous Girl’s Avenue section of the magazine a few volumes back, and volume 18 features the 4th artist, Shikei (紫珪). Unfortunately, it seems that he has been inactive since around 2005 and his website no longer exists. You can find a few relics of his on e-shuushuu.

Before we had the high-quality gifure sculpts of today, there were figures that looked like this. I’ll admit that the Belldandy figure looks pretty good even by today’s standards, but Sailor Saturn looks more like a gashapon toy and costs a shocking 12000 yen.

Shao was pointing this out, so I’m pointing it out as well. Starting November 30, 2001, you’ll be able to get your hands on the 6th and 7th episodes of Denshin Mamotte Shugogetten on VHS or DVD. I suggest you do :)

It’s hard to imagine that series like Di Gi Charat and Noir are already a decade old. Looking at this, I’m a bit curious as to why Gamers doesn’t advertise in the magazine any more.

Animate also has a diminished presence in Megami nowadays.

Included with the magazine was a booklet titled “Another Side of Keiji Gotoh’s Wonder Land”. In case you forgot who Keiji Gotoh is, he’s only the character designer for the best anime ever, and a staff member on Mawaru Penguindrum.

Inside are dozens of rough sketches that Keiji has done.

If you haven’t seen the Read or Die OVA, you’re missing out on some great action. The artwork isn’t great by today’s standards, but it’s still a good anime.

It’s nearly unbelieveable what Gainax and Shaft did in the past, when looking at what they make nowadays, I recently watched He is my master and was a bit surprised that it was not what I’ve expected from Shaft ^^.

Oh Kanon characters had huge eyes, I always said “oh the character must have a good sight at night” like the big eyed animals from the jungle XD

Hmm, I like the Tentama -1st Sunny Side poster a lot, you said it’s a loli dating game haha ^-^. I also like the first poster and th one from Angelic Layer.Wieselhead recently posted..New Preorders New Preorders Part 9

I guess Megami Magazine has always been about cute 2D girls. It was really interesting to see how much styles have changed compared to today. I love that ROD poster, and that Mahoro one too!exilehero recently posted..Mikuru’s close ecounter!

How nostalgic, Mahoro was one of the first shows that made me into a Gainax fan, Read or Die was one of the first shows I watched when I was really getting into anime in the mid 00’s.Miette-chan recently posted..Mikuru’s close ecounter!

Angelic Layer is one of my favorites…but the manga was a lot better than the anime. Or maybe I just think that because to me, CLAMP is like a group of gods. Other than Blood-C, which I’m trying to pretend never really happened.

But beyond Angelic Layer, I don’t really know any of the other series up there because 10 years ago I was only…y’know…eight. I haven’t backtracked to a lot of the series from quite that long ago yet.Arianna Sterling recently posted..Anime Review: Monochrome Factor

I first run through the pictures and thought that the images have somewhat retro vibe. Then I read your article, and indeed these were published ten years ago. There’s something about the built of the body, like they’re more curvy and fleshy compared to the ones we have now e.g. based on the posted work of Keiji Gotoh, I was surprised that he helped designed Penguindrum characters because I didn’t see any character resemblance. (Perhaps because some characters are from hentai or ecchi…)Snippett recently posted..Musings On Dokidoki Moments

It’s so neat to see all these really old styles. I love it! And it’s also kind of weird to not recognize anyone except for the last image, which also happens to be my favorite one (for obvious reasons ^ ^). Super super sexy, with kind of a nostalgia charm.Yi recently posted..Gosick Review

I love Satoshi Urushihara’s art, so I approve of this issue. Also, did they completely abandon creating another episode for ‘Front Innocent’ or is it just taking time because of the high detail? Anyway, it’s always nice to see an older issue of the magazine get some attention.

This is an interesting post showing a magazine issue 10 years old. It’s like having some sort of time capsule looking back how things were back then at that moment.

10 years is quite some time, though looking back it also didn’t feel like that long at the same time. Now looking at the art style it’s interesting to see the art style has changed along with other things such as facial/body proportions. I wonder how I would feel looking back at anime style now from 10 years on?Q recently posted..Meet the Desperado, Gundam AGE style